The Fall of Melewith
by PistachioGirl
Summary: ‘I mean, who wouldn’t want to find a magical kingdom under the rulership of a frog, or free a witch from a spell gone wrong…’ The tales of Melewith.


The Fall of Melewith

Chapter 1

_The Enchanted Forest Chronicles by Patricia Wrede have always been a favorite of mine since I was quite young and I was re-reading them for about the thousandth time when I was kind of inspired to try and write of an adventure in that world. I mean, who wouldn't want to find a magical kingdom under the rulership of a frog, or free a witch from a spell gone wrong…ooops, I've said too much. Feel free to read and tell me what you think about them, I enjoy having reviews very much, but any flamers will go to roasting evil wizards and the like… _

_In Which Being Lost is a Good Thing_

Little Burrow was a very small village at the edge of a kingdom known as HillsGrove, a not so large kingdom that was ruled by a king, his queen and their seven children, five daughters, all blonde haired and blue eyed, and two sons. 

On the far edge of Little Burrow, was a good sized farm with a two story cottage with blue shutters. 

Melewith wasn't like the other girls in the village, fawning over the village boys or hoping for a passing prince to fall in love with her. Melewith was a fairy, well, part fairy at least, she didn't have enough magic to allow for her to do anything great, like enchant anyone or cast curses, just some of the more minor of magic's. Instead of the standard blonde hair that was the norm for the kingdom, she had straight chestnut brown hair that she kept back in a ponytail that went down to her waist and emerald green eyes that she inherited from her mother, who was also a fairy. 

She lived with her two great aunts on the farm where they raised sheep whose wool could be spun into gold thread or once spun into normal thread would guide the way for anyone using it back to where they had started and geese that lay golden eggs, which were highly prized as gifts by noble families. Her aunt Margerie is the fairy godmother of the royal family of HillsGrove; she was a 'Good' fairy. Her other aunt Anemolie had been a dark fairy who, in her younger years, about a century or two ago, would cast curses on unsuspecting mortals, she is not as bad any longer, but every once in a while if an old foe's child or grandchild had a baby, she goes to try and cast a spell or curse on them and Auntie Margerie has to go after her and try to rectify the curse, usually resulting in the promise of the curse being lifted with loves first kiss, or something of the same sort for the enchantment to be absolved. 

Melewith wasn't like the other fairies either, she didn't believe enough in her magic. This was one morning where Melewith's life would take a twist. 

Melewith sat with her two aunts at the table eating their breakfast when Aunt Margerie turned to Melewith with a frown on her face as she held onto a letter that a carrier pigeon had just brought. 

"Melewith, you are seventeen years old, it's high time that you figure out what you want to do with yourself." 

"Yes child, it's high time you start taking your heritage more seriously, now I've gotten a summons that the newest member of the royal family wishes for us to give a blessing for their child, now YOU are going to go and give them a gift" Said Margerie.

"Yes, hopefully it will be an enchanted sleep forever, or you could turn her into a squirrel you know, or a bird or something." Her aunt Anemolie piped in. Margerie looked over at Anemolie sharply over her glasses.

"But Auntie, I don't want to be an evil fairy."

Margerie smiled over at her sister victoriously. "So you're going to be a good fairy instead."

"No, Auntie's, I don't want to do any of that…" 

"You have to choose something my dear, it's not proper for a young fairy your age to be gangling about without having at least enchanted something or other." 

"But I'm not a fairy, Grammie was, I can't even make the kettle dance." Melewith said glumly, remembering trying a while back that she wanted to make the kettle dance over to her and pour tea into her cup, but all the kettle did was tip over and spill the tea all over Anemolie's pet squirrel, poor thing never looked at Melewith the same since. 

"Now, now, don't feel bad about yourself my dear, when I was your age, I couldn't even make this twit of a princess I came across into a rabbit, all she did was grow whiskers and have an uncanny fondness for carrots. Now, I can turn an entire kingdom into a bunch of butterflies if I felt like it, you'll grow into your power." 

"But I don't want to turn people into animals." 

Aunt Margerie stood up taking their breakfast dishes over to the sink and then spoke.

"Melly, be a dear and don't argue, you're leaving in the morning, be sure to pack." 

That morning…

Margerie was fussing over Melewith again, adjusting her pack and making sure that she had everything with her for the trip. 

"You'll have to be polite to them, none of your dashing about and all."

"Even if they are dreadfully boring?"

"Yes, they can't help if they are silly." Margerie stopped fussing and stood back next to Anemolie. 

"Marge, you're just being nice, they are a bunch of lack wits that breed like rabbits and can bore a giant to tears."

"Annie! Don't speak of them like that, at least not in front of Melly!"

"What…don't want our precious Melly to see why she shouldn't be a good fairy?"

"Annie…"

Melewith snuck out the door and their voices faded away as she walked down past the pasture where the sheep and geese were grazing, waving goodbye to the creatures, she walked down the road toward the kingdom, she would have to go around one of the edges of the Enchanted Forest to get to the bridge to go into the kingdom.

The journey there was hot and bothersome, at one point along the way, she had tripped over some rocks that were strewn over the path and had scrapped her knees and palms of her hands. She was more than happy to see the village of HillsGrove and quickly made her way up to the castle. Melewith looked up at the walls surrounding the castle; pure white blocks formed a wall taller than she could see with guards in yellow uniforms patrolling across the tops of the walls. It was larger than she thought possible. After presenting her invitation, the guards ushered her in and a portly woman who turned out to be the stewardess lead her down the hall and shoved her gently into a guest room and told her to change into the gown on the bed after she bathed. It would have been unseemly for a fairy godmother to go to a christening in a tattered dirty old dress. After her bath, Melewith used a little magic to dry her hair and she held up the light blue silken dress, it was lined with silver embroidery at the hems, there were even matching blue slippers at the end of the bed. She quickly slipped it all on when a main came in to put up her hair. Surrendering herself to the maid, it was put up into a fashionable set of curls and the maid pronounced that she was done and Melewith was lead to the throne room. A small man announced her name to the growing audience and she went town the staircase and into the crowd with the rest of the guests.

"Fairy Melewith of Little Burrow." Melewith tried to blend in with the rest of the guests, but it seemed that they were uncomfortable with her being an unannounced fairy, not being good or bad; they didn't know what to make of her.

The king and queen sat at the dais with a basinet decorated with roses and pink and yellow ribbons to the side of the throne. Their four other daughters and two sons were sitting on smaller thrones nearby smiling prettily at the crowd.

The king stood and faced the audience as the queen bent over the basinet and picked up a bundle of lace and ribbons that had a small hand waving about and raised his hands to hush the crowd.

"Presenting the Princess Abigail Rose Peony Liandra Merryweather to the kingdom of HillsGrove and other esteemed guests." Cheers rang out through the crowds and Melewith clapped her hands slowly along with them. After several other proclamations and speeches by other important persons, it was time to present the gifts and to see the child. The guests went up in small groups to see the princess in her basinet and leave small gifts for her on a table nearby or to bless her with gifts. After a few renditions of "Her hair shall have curls as large as goblets…she shall sing like a nightingale…her embroidery shall be peerless…" it was Melewith's turn. As she walked up to the dais, her mind drew a blank, she stood there, looking down at the little baby with blonde curls the color of the sun at mid-day and she looked up at Melewith with cornflower blue eyes. _Hopefully this one won't be as ditzy as her older sisters…That's it!_

"May she be blessed with wit and intelligence." Not one of the most outstanding gifts that could have been given, but Melewith thought that it would be practical. She only hoped that her magic would work as she moved down past the line of people.

The ceremony came to an end and as the stewardess was leading her out, she was told to keep the dress and the slippers as gifts for coming to the ceremony. Melewith looked down at the directions that her Aunts had given her to find the blacksmiths and she followed along the path that left the village of HillsGrove and went closer to the mountains. 

A few miles later, she came upon a large hill with a doorway cut in the side of it and smoke coming from a chimney at the top. A small wooden sign said 'Blacksmith' hung over the entrance and Melewith stepped up to the door and knocked, but no one answered. She knocked again, and then opened the door and went through.

Melewith emerged from the tunnel into a large, well lit room where an enormous forge was against one wall, and two anvils were near the center. Several weapons of various sizes lined the walls and there were barrels full of more useful things like nails and arrowheads. She noticed a doorway also on the opposite wall. Melewith shied away from one of the barrels that had pieces of wrought iron in it and drifted over to the table where a short dwarf was leaning back in a chair with his legs propped up on top of the table sleeping with his fingers interlinked over his stomach. He was snoring loudly, causing his long brown beard to sway in time with his snores. 

"Excuse me…" She whispered to him. Then a little louder, "Excuse me sir…wake up please." Slowly the dwarf woke up and yawned, his chair almost falling back, and he put his feet down onto the ground and looked over at her. 

"Denamor at your service, how can I help you?"

"I'm Melewith, my Aunts Margerie and Anemolie had something that they had ordered from you."

"Oh, I see," said the dwarf. "Strictly business. Well, you'll have to wait until after supper. Wifey doesn't like it when I do business while she is cooking."

"Your wife?"

"Oh yes, Marie." He looked over at the doorway on the other side of the room. "She's just in there. She'd probably love having someone to help with dinner. Go on, skit." As he waved her off, sitting back in his chair again.

Melewith ducked through the opening and was greeted by a lovely she-dwarf with blond curls pulled up in a messy bun, with a blue apron tied around her waist. "Hello there, be a dear and cut up those apples for me there." She pointed over at the counter to a bunch of apples in a basket. "That husband of mine, decides that he wanted apple pie tonight, what with a guest and all, nothing wrong about you dearie, I just wish he would stop bringing princesses home all the time, especially with those brothers of his."

"But ma'am, I'm not a princess."

"Not a princess? But you look like one."

"I'm Melewith, I just came from Princess Abigail's christening, and my Aunts told me to pick up an order from your husband on the way home." 

"Well fancy that. I'm glad you aren't a princess, flighty lot they are. Always coming in unannounced and sleeping in our beds and taking poisoned apples from strangers, I still have to chase out the woodland creatures every once in a while who come looking for the last one. I was glad when his brothers decided that they needed a larger house and went to build nearer to the mine. It gives us a little more peace and quiet." They could hear the loud snoring from the other room where Denamor had fallen back to sleep. The dwarf rolled her eyes fondly. "Well quiet enough, you wonder why his brothers used to call him Sleepy and all." 

…

"Can you tell me the quickest way back home? I'm in kind of a hurry…" Melewith said as Denamor was gathering the package that was for her Aunts. After putting it into her rucksack, Melewith turned down the path to leave.

"Wait a minute dear." Melewith stopped and turned around, waiting as the small dwarven woman ran up to her. "Here, we've had this hanging around for who knows how long, a gift from one of the dragons for a favor. We've never had a use for it; maybe it will help you in the future." She handed up a small necklace that had a silver teardrop with a small crystal that changed color in the light in the center. 

"It's beautiful." 

"Yes, yes, now go on, you need to be getting back to your family and all, mind you don't forget those directions." 

…

_How could I have gotten lost, all I had to do was follow this stream to the second red oak on the right and then go straight for two miles, then I should have come across a road._ Sighing, Melewith walked over toward a stream and sat down.

"Might as well call home and tell them that I am lost…again." She sent out a tentative swelling of magic onto the surface of the stream, and watched as it went smooth as glass, slowly swirling a light gray color. 

"Home." She commanded. The colors whirled around and cleared to show the glade where her family lived, surrounded by trees, instead of the two story cottage and pasture; there was an enormous circular crater in the dirt and not a sign of her family. She could still feel their presence, they weren't dead. _Her family was missing, something bad had happened._

_Disclaimer: Just so you know, I do NOT own the Enchanted Forest Chronicles or any creation therein created by Patricia Wrede. I only own the OC's that I create and any weird or crazy plots that my imagination may come up with. _


End file.
